A New York state doctor has been accused of using his own sperm to inseminate his patients in the 1980s, after a woman who took a DNA test found she had six half-siblings including one of the doctor’s own children.
Morgan Hellquist has filed a lawsuit with the Monroe Supreme Court against gynecologist Dr. Morris Wortman claiming that he inseminated her mother with his own sperm, despite telling them that he was using a donor.
Wortman, who is married and works at The Center of Menstrual Disorders in Rochester, was paid $50 two-to-three times a month by Hellquist’s mother for each insemination attempt between late 1983 and January 1985, the lawsuit says.
Hellquist, of Geneseo, NY, claims she discovered she had six half-siblings after taking an ancestry DNA test in 2016.
Hellquist is suing Wortman, the Genesee Valley Group Health Association, and the Center for Menstrual Disorders, and accuses them of fraud and malpractice.
Dr Morris Wortman has been accused of inseminating patients nearly 40 years ago, resulting in at least one birth
Wortman is the associate director of The Center for Menstrual Disorders in Rochester, NY
Her parents had approached Wortman after struggling to conceive, as her father had fertility issues.
Both of her parents were told by Wortman that the donor sperm would be coming from an anonymous student at the University of Rochester with a specific ethnic background and no history of medical issues, Hellquist claims.
Wortman was called a ‘miracle’ by Hellquist’s parents after her mother became pregnant with her in 1985 after an unsuccessful line of previous attempts.
According to the lawsuit, Hellquist said she took a DNA test in 2016 to find out more about her biological father and her ancestry. Hellquist’s parents told her that she was a donor baby when she was eight-years-old.
She previously attempted to discover the identity of her biological father when she was in high school, but Wortman claimed he did not have the records available from that time.
The lawsuit states that the consumer ancestry test revealed Hellquist was of 50 percent Ashkenazi Jewish descent, despite the doctor having told her parents that the donor was of a northern European background.
A year after she took the test, she discovered she had two half-sibling brothers that were of the same Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry that were born in 1984 and 1985.
She also discovered two other half siblings born in the same year as her and another half-brother that was born in 1983.
In 2020, she discovered she had a sixth half-sibling that was born in 1981.
As a result of these discoveries, Hellquist claims she has suffered from psychological issues and permanent physical injuries of her own.
‘With each new half-sibling discovery, Plaintiff experienced increased anxiety, migraine headaches, shock and confusion, feelings of despair, stress and other physical manifestations of continuing to learn that her donor father had been a serial sperm donor. Plaintiff also feared there were other half-siblings who would continue to show up in her life,’ the lawsuit reads.
During this time, Hellquist has been going to Wortman for treatment when she experienced gynecological issues after the birth of her two children.
She had seen Wortman for nine years, and had had pelvic examinations, transvaginal ultrasounds, and IUC placements under sedation.
Wortman was called a ‘miracle’ by Hellquist’s parents after her mother became pregnant with her in 1985
She says she chose the doctor in 2012 because ‘he was so highly regarded in her family’.
But the lawsuit states that Hellquist came to suspect the doctor might be her own biological father in April 2021, after a personal discussion with him where he said: ‘You’re a good kid. Such a good kid.’
The suit states that at one point Wortman’s wife Rebecca came in to the room, and the doctor introduced the two of them.
The suit says that this was unusual, and claims that it could be because the doctor’s wife was aware that he was her biological father.
It says: ‘Rebecca came into the room at Defendant Wortman’s request so that Rebecca could get a close look at Plaintiff to see Plaintiff’s physical resemblance to Defendant Wortman because Rebecca and Defendant Wortman both knew Defendant Wortman was Plaintiff’s biological father.’
The suit explains that in May 2021, Hellquist and one of her half brothers made contact with Wortman’s biological daughter from his first marriage, who agreed to a DNA test to find out if they were related.
The test revealed with 99.99 percent certainty that they were siblings, and that Wortman is her father, the lawsuit says.
Hellquist claims that she found at least six half-siblings after performing a DNA test
The lawsuit also states that Wortman had been suffering from mental health issues including bipolar disorder.
The suit states: ‘Defendant Wortman knew or should have known that plantiff having a biological parent, grandparent and uncle with schizophrenia, anxiety, and/or depression, created an increased risk that plantiff or her children could inherit these highly genetically inherited psychiatric disorders.’
The lawsuit also states that Wortman is liable for ‘significant emotional and psychological trauma, loss of enjoyment of life, monetary damages, conscious pain and suffering, including pain and suffering akin to that experienced by survivors of sexual abuse and incest which is realized or remembered later in life, and she will continue to suffer these damages for the rest of her life.’
Hellquist is requesting monetary damages in trial as well.
DailyMail.com reached out to Dr Wortman at The Center for Menstrual Disorders for comment.